Thinking is a cognitive process where one uses their mind to generate ideas, formulate solutions to problems and reflect on experiences.
Thoughts are expressed in words and actions with profound power to build, mould, scold, embolden, motivate, discourage, create, affirm and even destroy. The adjectives are endless and in simple terms, our thoughts are our everything.
The Holy Bible has a popular quote in the book of Proverbs 23:7, “for as he thinketh in his heart, so is he”. And Proverbs 4:23, reads, “Be careful how you think, your life is shaped by your thoughts”.
“Our life is what our thoughts make it”, said Marcus Aurelius, a Roman emperor who lived nearly 200 years ago opined.
He said, “The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.”
The great Mahatma Gandhi is quoted as saying that a man is but the product of his thoughts, and what he thinks he becomes.
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Psychology Today, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy specifically focus heavily on our thoughts and thought patterns.
Dr David Burns says that the difference between sadness and depression is that sadness is just that - sadness over a life event that happened to go wrong.
Depression on the other hand is a pattern of negative thinking associated with a certain life event.
One of the reasons why thoughts may work against someone is due to cognitive distortion.
This refers to biased or irrational ways of thinking that contribute to negative emotions and behaviour.
These distorted thought patterns often reinforce feelings of anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem, causing individuals to perceive situations in an overly negative or unrealistic way. Cognitive distortion is brought about by several factors including one’s early life experiences including exposure to trauma, abuse, critical upbringing or major negative experiences.
One’s personality traits like the ones with perfectionistic tendencies and the ones with anxiety and depression.
Aspects like learned behaviour from family, peers, media, and reinforced distorted thinking patterns also contribute.
Cognitive biases where one keeps noticing instances, events or happenings that confirm their beliefs, further distort this thinking.
Individual biological factors like imbalance in brain chemicals like serotonin and dopamine, that help in regulation of mood and cognitive processing also play a key role.
Stressful life events and other cognitive vulnerabilities like pessimistic cognitive style by default.
Common cognitive distortions include all-or-nothing thinking where one sees things in black or white without a middle ground, overgeneralization by making conclusions based on a single event, or catastrophizing where one expects the worst-case scenario, no matter how unlikely.
Mental filtering is where one solely focuses on negative aspects of a situation without considering any positives, while personalization is where one blames themselves for events beyond their control,
Should statements like having rigid rules about how oneself or others, while labelling by assigning a negative label to oneself or others based on a single event is common?
- The writer is a licensed psychologist/psychiatrist clinical officer and lecturer KMTC Meru Campus
